Extradition of Mexican drug kingpin could take months or years

Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman (C) is escorted by soldiers
during a presentation at the Navy's airstrip in Mexico
CityThomson
Reuters

By Mark Hosenball and David Ingram

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It could take months or even years for
American and Mexican authorities to work out details of
extraditing captured Mexican drug cartel boss Joaquin "Shorty"
Guzman to the United States, U.S. officials said on Monday.

First of all, the Mexican and U.S. governments will have to
conduct delicate negotiations, involving the U.S. State
Department and law enforcement agencies, over whether and how an
extradition should proceed, the officials said.

Some Mexican government officials believe Guzman should first
face charges in Mexico, where he was caught on Saturday. Neither
the Mexican Attorney General's office nor the office of President
Enrique Pena Nieto have commented on the extradition issue. On
Monday, however, Guzman's Mexican lawyer filed court papers
seeking to block any extradition after New York prosecutors said
they would seek to have him sent there.

Guzman, 56, was previously sentenced in Mexico to nearly 21 years
on drug trafficking and organized crime charges. He escaped
prison in 2001, reportedly in a laundry cart, according to U.S.
law enforcement sources, after serving about eight years.

Mexican authorities on Monday charged Guzman with drugs and arms
trafficking, court and government sources said. He has not been
charged with murder, the sources said, despite accusations that
his Sinaloa cartel was behind thousands of killings.

Guzman is now languishing in the Altiplano prison in the State of
Mexico, outside the capital. He gave a brief statement to a judge
on Sunday, and is being kept in a cell alone in a maximum
security area.

At least four U.S. prosecutors' offices, Brooklyn in New York,
Chicago, Miami and El Paso, Texas, have outstanding indictments
against Guzman and associates for crimes ranging from marijuana
and cocaine trafficking to kidnapping and murder.

On Sunday, Robert Nardoza, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney in
Brooklyn, told Reuters that the office was planning "to seek
(Guzman's) extradition" to face cocaine distribution charges
filed in 2009.

But a final decision on whether to request extradition will be
made in Washington and it would be officials there who would
prepare the formal paperwork to submit to Mexico.

On Monday, the Obama Administration appeared to distance itself
from the federal prosecutor's office in New York. Peter Carr, a
spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters in
Washington, said: "The decision whether to pursue extradition
will be the subject of further discussion between the United
States and Mexico."

The Obama Administration wants to avoid looking like it is
putting pressure on Mexico to move quickly and is seeking to
reinforce efforts by President Nieto to demonstrate his
government is capable of effective action against major
traffickers like Guzman and his Sinaloa cartel, U.S. officials
said.

In the hours following the statement by prosecutors in Brooklyn,
the Justice Department privately issued strong advisories to
prosecutors around the country to avoid further public comments
on the subject, officials said.

Authorities accuse Guzman's cartel of smuggling billions of
dollars worth of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines into the
United States and fighting vicious turf wars with other Mexican
gangs.

Tens of thousands of people were killed in the fighting,
especially in western and northern regions that have long been
key smuggling routes.

Officials said that among the strongest U.S. cases pending
against Guzman were those in Brooklyn and Chicago, where the most
current indictment charging him and others with trafficking in
cocaine and heroin was issued in 2012.